10
What Makes Free Market Free?
It’s not the absence of laws and regulations.
“The Marxist fantasy of the dictatorship, from the socialist revolution, eventually leading to voluntary socialism of workers’ paradise is nothing more than a fantasy, a laughable one, only possible for people who have no idea how power works.”
“Because power works a lot like entropy (from physics), in that it tends to increase over time, while freedom tends to decrease, so if your socialist dream started with a totalitarian bang, it’s only going to get worse, not better.”
“I’m not espousing some metaphysical principle about power, like the way some interpret Nietzsche’s will to power, only that it’s a general tendency of the state’s political power to increase, or try to increase, unless there are absolute, guaranteed limits set to that power.”
“So a dictator is not just going to give away his power, turn the system into a ‘voluntary socialism’ (though that’s not possible because socialism is totalitarian even in concept), at least not without a fight, another bloody revolution, or equivalent threat he can’t overcome.”
“But maybe Marxists aren’t so much liars and thieves as they are naive and stupid, ignorant of power dynamics or human motivations. Their criticism of capitalism, at least some forms of capitalism, is not without merit.”
“The very term ‘free market’ is misleading because it might suggest, to some, a market free of regulations, even laws. But that’s not possible as we have seen. In fact, there must be rules to discourage cheating, price fixing, monopolies, murder, etc. for free trade and free market to function.”
“Regulations aren’t automatically good (like the left thinks) or bad (the right). They’re good if they protect fair competition and allow the beneficial economic activities to flourish, bad if they do the opposite.”
“For example, if polluting chemical industries are allowed to dump their toxic waste material unchecked in a town’s river and exponentially increase the chances of cancer (not to mention pollution), that will be very bad overall, and not just economically.”
“Regulations that protect people from such health hazards, and in that way restrict what these corporations can do, are good because they will promote the overall economic health in the long run, not to mention the overall health of the society in general.”
“But what’s good about the free market is that it’s fair, it accurately reflects the current state of supply and demand, thus the current value of all things in the market, determined most democratically, by what each person values and is willing to trade for.”
“Any interference with that natural determination, any manipulation of it, would result in an unfair valuation, like a cheater getting much more in the transaction than what it’s worth using deception (fraud), corruption (e.g. monopolies), etc.”
“This is the sense of ‘free’ market we try to uphold, to keep the market healthy and fair, free of unfair interferences whether they’re from the government or various powerful players in the economy.”
“The government might be a source of such interference because its policies are stupid or because it’s been corrupted by powerful economic players (e.g. crony capitalism, oligarchy).”
“Powerful economic players are the other source, by interfering directly (e.g. secretly banding together with other competitors to form secret monopoly), or indirectly (e.g. lobbying the government to interfere in their favor).”
“The people might also interfere by forming powerful organizations (e.g. unions), but in general they’ll have a much harder time because of the organization and resources necessary, unlike the powerful players.”
“But such criticism of capitalism is valid only because free market and free trade are important. Marxism, on the contrary, is the ultimate interference of the free market, a complete demolition, a ‘father knows best’ type of domination where the father knows nothing.”
“As for the common complaint of the exploitation of workers, the bottom line is that no one owes you anything, that includes a well-paying job with great working conditions. Employment is a business contract and you’re free to say ‘No’ to it.”
“If you said ‘Yes’ to a bad deal, you don’t get to complain about it because that’s your fault. If you say that there are no good employment opportunities, that’s unfortunate if true, but again, no one owes you that.”
“On the other hand, if you treat your employees poorly, treat them as mere resources and not as human beings, you can’t be surprised if they dislike you intensely, if they show no loyalty, and even leave for your worst competitor at the first opportunity.”
“But as with the free market, this is not a complaint a Marxist is entitled to because the exploitation of workers is real and much worse in a Marxist system because you have much less say in a dictatorship (none, basically) than in a democracy.”
“Apart from the pretty rhetoric, there’s nothing below the surface, there’s no ‘theory’ at all regarding how to realistically deal with corruption, how to exercise power fairly, how to combat the ‘capitalist oppression’ without creating even more oppression like the CCP.”
a monologue about social, political, and moral philosophy cleverly disguised as a dialogue between me and my imaginary daughter Annie: first, next.
